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Charge for Global Education Project Team

Westtown’s mission is to “create leaders and stewards of a better world.” Today’s interconnected world presents new opportunities and challenges that make our call to educate global citizens ever more urgent. The Global Education Project Team will include members of the faculty, staff, and Board. It will submit a report to the HOS by October 2010 in order to assist in budget and curriculum planning beginning with the 2011-12 school year.

Charge:

Write a global education mission statement to guide our thinking, planning, and future action, framing it within the context of Quaker education and testimonies, and Westtown’s unique program and heritage.

Identify knowledge, skills, and attributes that are essential in preparing students for global citizenship in the 21st century.

Identify existing strengths in Westtown’s program – what are we currently doing in each division to develop these abilities and attributes? How can we best connect these into a coherent whole?

Develop and prioritize recommendations to build on and integrate these existing strengths in our curriculum, enrollment, student life, professional development, and outreach/marketing.

Develop standards and guidelines for assessing the impact of Westtown’s program on our student s and alumni as global citizens. How do we know when we are succeeding?

Identify partnerships, coalitions, and affiliations with like-minded schools, colleges, and other organizations that would increase our effectiveness in fulfilling our mission.

Consider how issues of affordability and time impact these priorities and recommendations.

The Project Team should balance consultations with the faculty and Strategic Thinking Committee of the Board of Trustees along with existing Westtown research—including the Middle School Curricular Re-Envisioning Report (Summer 2008), the Strategic Plan (November 2005), and the final report of the 21st Century Committee (May 2004)—with cutting-edge educational research. The team should also consider surveying students, alumni and parents in an effort to incorporate input from the wider Westtown community.




Dear Friends,
I am delighted to announce the appointment of the Global Education Project Team. Many thanks to these colleagues for their willingness to serve on this timely and important committee. In addressing the attached charge, they will write a statement of our global mission, consider the skills and attributes needed by our students to thrive and make a difference in the world, and assess and recommend programs and partnerships to help develop them. I have asked the co-clerks, Sue Gold and Margaret Haviland, to add two students to this team, and to be as inclusive as possible in seeking feedback from relevant constituencies in the School community.
Tim Barnard - Board of Trustees
Steve Compton - US Teacher/External Program Coordinator
Jon Evans - Board of Trustees
Linda Garrettson - LS Teacher
Sue Gold - Director of Communications, Co-Clerk
Margaret Haviland - Curriculum Coordinator, Chair-US History Department,
Co-Clerk
Victoria Jones - Director of Library Services
Megan Rose - MS Teacher
Susan Tree - Director of College Counseling
Nancy van Arkel - MS Principal
John Baird, ex officio

If you have suggestions regarding the work of this group, please send them to me or to the project team clerks.
Best regards,
John